The present invention relates generally to blow gun devices, and more particularly to improvements in a multi-shot blow gun assembly.
Traditional blow gun devices are simple, tube-like devices into which a single dart is loaded and then fired. Recently, in order to compete with fast-paced activities such as paint ball games, blow gun devices having multiple shot magazines which facilitate loading and sequentially firing of a number of projectiles have been developed. In one such design, a rotary magazine having a number of longitudinal chambers that are loaded by aligning each with a loading aperture and inserting a projectile is used. The magazine is selectively rotated to load remaining empty chambers as desired. Similarly, projectiles are launched by selectively rotating the magazine to align a given loaded chamber with an air input aperture and a projectile exit aperture to form a projectile launching path, and then forcing air into the input aperture.
The rotary magazine of this prior art design is trapped in a cage-like frame between a proximal cap portion and a distal cap portion. The proximal cap defines the air input and loading apertures, and the distal cap defines the exit aperture. Opposing longitudinal arms connect the proximal cap portion and distal cap portions on either of two sides opposing the magazine. This configuration captures each end of the magazine between the proximal cap portion and distal cap portion, respectively, and the opposing longitudinal arms. The magazine rotates within the capturing frame around an axis parallel to the projectile launching path.
Unfortunately, because of the adjacent longitudinal arms, access to the entire periphery of the magazine is not available for manual rotation adjustments. Consequently, this limited access hampers alignment operations. Furthermore, should the longitudinal arms become deformed so that they are "pinched" together, as would occur by continued grasping of the arms, the magazine is likely to bind. Such binding prevents smooth rotation of the magazine.
Another aspect of one existing design is the use of a rotational indexer, particularly a leaf spring attached to one of the longitudinal arms. This leaf spring has a tooth which is biased to ride along the surface of the magazine and is further configured to engage notches spaced along the periphery of this surface. When the tooth engages one of these notches, the force normally required to rotate the magazine must be increased to disengage it. As a result, a rotational stop effectively results. For this configuration, these rotational stops were designed to correspond to a launching path alignment for each of the magazine chambers.
Unfortunately, this rotational indexing scheme has a tendency to score the magazine surface by the tooth riding therealong. Also, the leaf spring structure is exposed in a manner which increases the likelihood of breakage. Moreover, the indexer does not provide rotational stops for alignment of projectile loading paths for each of the magazine chambers.
Consequently, a need exists for a blow gun assembly which provides a multiple projectile magazine fully accessible from all sides for manual rotation. Furthermore, the assembly should provide rotational stops using a sheltered rotational indexer less susceptible to breakage, and offer rotational stops not only for launching path alignments, but also for loading path alignments of each of the chambers contained in the magazine. The present invention addresses these needs.